Lots of research supports the premise that exercise is actually good for your brain, and not only in terms of mood. Exercise prevents some of the age-related decline in mental function, as well as building stronger nueral connections.
This is from Psychology Today:
It turns out that the brain-body connection is more powerful than anyone thought. Shaking a leg (or curling a bicep) doesn't just make you stronger, healthier and better-looking—it also helps your brain shrug off damage and the effects of aging.
Thanks to brain-imaging studies in humans and neurochemical studies in animals, scientists have found evidence that exercise actually makes a stronger brain. Physical exertion induces the cells in the brain to reinforce old connections between neurons and to forge new connections. This denser neuron network is better able to process and store information, essentially resulting in a smarter brain.
Best of all, exercisers may not need the endurance of an ironman ... to benefit. For older people in particular, even a moderate program of exercise can boost brain health and cognition.
Much of this research focuses on a protein called BDNF, for "brain-derived neurotrophic factor." This chemical, which helps nerve cells grow and connect, is important for fetal development. But it turns out to be critical in the adult brain, as well.
The benefits of BDNF are broad. Rats with boosted BDNF in their brains navigate mazes faster than cage mates with lower levels. Brain injuries in the high-BDNF animals heal faster. Data even suggest that an increase in BDNF helps rats avoid a type of behavior that is considered to be the rodent equivalent of depression.
How does the chemical work? Vassilis Koliatsos, a psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland who has studied BDNF for more than a decade, says the molecule actually helps rewire the brain. BDNF is one of the tools a brain uses to turn life experiences into long-lasting changes, influencing everything from memory to mood. "Learning is taking signals that come in from your senses and embedding them into brain anatomy," he says. BDNF, which helps build the nervous system, seems to play an important role.
Even better, researchers have learned that boosting this beneficial brain chemical may be simple to do: Scores of studies during the last decade show that short stints of exercise increase BDNF in the brains of animals. In rat studies conducted by Fernando Gomez-Pinilla and his colleagues at UCLA, even a few minutes of swimming raised levels of BDNF.
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